Central New York is getting a closer look at Micron’s plans to build four semiconductor chip fabrication plants in the town of Clay.
When company officials presented a request for tax breaks to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency, they revealed the company's preliminary site master plan. Carson Henry, Micron’s director of U.S. Expansion, said construction of the four computer chip fab plants will move west to east. They’ll be built two at a time, with the first two accounting for $51 billion of the project's total $100 billion price tag.
“We'll see a peak of roughly 4,500 construction jobs,” said Henry. “Construction will take about two years and that peak will last for about nine months. It will ramp up and then ramp back down. But it won't go to zero, there will be continuous construction that happens as we fit up the fabs and fill them up with equipment based on market demand.”
Other aspects of the plan include plenty of green space on the 1,400-acre site, a parking garage, a day care and medical facility close by, and measures to ease traffic concerns.
"We're going to build multiple access points to the campus at full build-out,” said Henry. “We'd expect that there should be around six access points out. So to be too long, call it a road one for service trucks, block employees, and then along Route 31, we expect three different access points."
The project is still expected to create 9,000 direct jobs, as well as 40,000 more in the community. The next step is a vote by the IDA to become the lead agency for the project. That allows the state’s rigorous environmental review process to begin. IDA Chair Pat Hogan has been impressed by all of Micron’s plans so far.
"I am particularly impressed by Micron, how easy they are to deal with, and how committed they seem to be to this community,” said Hogan. “Especially with the money that they've already had devoted to certain nonprofits, the STEAM school, things like that."
Residents will be able to ask questions about the megafab’s progress and Micron’s community commitments at an Open House in Clay August 1.
